A garden and a disability By Linda Crabtree, C.M., O.Ont.
Photos by Ron Book, Linda Crabtree and Nadine Smeed
Pink dogwood and Japanese maple at front of house.
W
hen my husband, Ron Book, and I bought our 60-by-120-foot corner lot in 1988, we had no intentions of having a garden …ever. I designed our home using the concepts of Universal Design because I was born with a progressive genetic neuromuscular condition (CharcotMarie-Tooth disease, or CMT) that has left me, at 79, unable to stand. I am also losing the use of my hands. Back then, I could walk but we were running a world-wide organization for people with CMT so there was little time for gardening. A layer of landscaping material and tons of Lake Erie beach stone, along with a truckload of granite boulders from a local vineyard, went into the areas of our lot facing the street on the east and south. I was given 24 hours to find trees. The landscapers were coming the next morning. I wanted black pines but settled for Scots pines. I was told they wouldn’t grow too tall. They were wrong.
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Linda drawing a foxglove on the lounge.
I had once marveled at a pink dogwood in full bloom and vowed that if I ever had the space, I’d have one, so a pink dogwood and a Japanese maple went into the front. The south side of the house got five pines, a smoke bush and several dogwoods. We live in the Southern Ontario CaroIssue 1
linian forest area near Niagara Falls. Flowering dogwoods thrive here and we now have 14 on the property. In 2002, after 18 years, we passed the CMT organization on and I began to explore our neighbourhood on my electric scooter. I would stop in front of rosebushes and want to take localgardener.net
